December 29, 2010

Surviving the wet

Beachmere's great advantage when the rains come is that it has feet of sand and the water simply drains away. The main road in -- Beachmere Rd -- which connects the township to Caboolture -- may occasionally be threatened by the rising levels of the river and St John's Creek -- which it skirts -- but that's a standard. Give it a few more years of global warming and Beachmere will be an island.

The road was last closed on October 11th.

In the meantime the local environment weathers what comes across the bay at it. The recent storminess, especially the high winds, have beaten upon the coastline and in some cases, uprooted mangroves. The wetland lakes are brim full with more fresh water than is the norm and this may lead to the death of those species -- flora and fauna -- who prefer their water more saline.

Nonetheless, the heavy and persistent rain has encouraged a massive fruiting of fungi seemingly upon what should be just sand. In the township, pristine ecology mixed with bought in compost or soil means that the botany is mixed and toadstools of many different colours have popped up in the most unlikely of places probably for the first time in decades.